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Architecture
In the first third of the 20th century, German architecture was highly
acclaimed throughout the world. The Bauhaus movement and its philosophies
of "Neue Sachlichkeit" ("New Objectivity") and functionalism
pioneered new trends in archiecture and design. Today, these achievements
are still recognized by contemporary design magazines like Wallpaper
as "one of the most energetic and inspirational art movements of
the century." The names of the Bauhaus teachers are world famous:
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Bruno Taut and
Erich Mendelsohn all had a major influence on international modern architecture.
At the latest after they had built some of the most famous skyscrapers
in the US, especially in Chicago, the styles of these masterminds conquered
the world.
Today, German architecture, like so much else, has gone global. It attempts
to forge links with its great past but at the same time understands the
necessity of combining the functionalist emphases of the 1920s with a
postmodern and humanist approach. Berlin can be seen as the focal point
of Germany's architectural future: Since 1990, virtually the entire city
center has been under renovation, with the aim of giving Berlin the look
of a cosmopolitan capital and a thriving metropolis. British architect
Sir Norman Foster converted the former Reichstag into the new German
parliament, crowning it with a glass cupola which serves as a new hallmark
of the German capital. Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Rafael Moneo and
former Mies-student Helmut Jahn gave Potsdamer Platz its new shape. Also,
German architects Stephan Braunfels, von Gerkan Marg and Partners, Hans
Kollhoff and Josef Paul Kleihues made their contributions to the new
capital. The Federal Chancellery, designed by Axel Schultes and Charlotte
Frank, can be seen as a symbol of this new German architecture and its
regained self-confidence.
However, new architecture is by no means limited to Berlin. Due to the
federal structure of the country, Germany has many regional centers exhibiting
different trends. The Stadttor in Düsseldorf, designed by architects
Petzinka, Pink and Partner, the Kunsthalle in Bremen (by Braun, Köhler & Schlockermann),
Dresden's new synagogue (by Wandel Hoefer Lorch Architekten), Hamburg’s
new waterfront houses (mostly by Bothe, Richter, Teherani and von Gehrkan)
and new art gallery (by Oswald Mathias Ungers, who also built the German
ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. (upper right) ) are but a
few outstanding examples of the latest impetuses in German architecture.
 New Technologies
Modern technologies, especially ecologically advanced developments, have
been widely adopted in Germany in recent years. Houses are being built
which not only consume no energy, but actually feed solar energy back
into the local power grid in the form of electricity. New timber-processing
methods and sophisticated construction approaches make wood a competitive
raw material once again, one that is easily replenished and low in
toxic residues. They help to avoid building methods which harm the
climate and the environment. Thus it comes as little surprise that
foreign architects admire German buildings most for their quality of
construction: nowhere else are houses built more solidly or durably,
using more sophisticated technologies. 
Iconic Architecture
Architecture always evinces political influence. Especially in the 20th
century, it was used by many national powers to demonstrate strength – from
the bourgeois to dictators, from socialism to capitalist democracy.
Buildings were constructed not only to serve the needs of the people
who would inhabit them, but also to influence public emotions. The
results of this political architecture can still be seen throughout
Germany.
The Bauhaus master houses in Dessau, a suburb of three pairs of semi-detached
house-cubes built in 1925, symbolize the impact of modernism on everyday
life. Designer Peter Behrens set an excellent example of expressionist
architecture style: in 1924 he built the Hoechst Chemical Company's administrative
building (near Frankfurt) using colored piers of angled brick, dyed with
Hoechst's own products.
During the Third Reich, the concepts of Albert Speer became the architectural
implementation of National Socialist ideology. Werner March's design
for the monolithic Berlin Olympic Stadium, with its Roman Coliseum-like
stepped seating is an example of the close connection between politics
and architecture. Unlike most other Nazi-era architecture the Olympic
Stadium was not torn down after World War II and is still in use today.
After 1945, Berlin was the setting not only of a political but also an
architectural Cold War: While the GDR built the monumental Stalinallee
(now Karl-Marx-Allee) influenced by 1920s Soviet architecture, the West
constructed the Philharmonic building by Hans Scharoun in 1959, also
known as "the sleeping oyster," as well as the airy New National
Gallery by Mies von der Rohe in 1963 to symbolize West Germany's close
alliance with the western world.
The relicts of socialist urban planning can still be seen in Germany's
east. The GDR regime regarded bourgeois houses, palaces, castles and
churches as monuments of feudalism and class distinction that had been
overcome, and thus accepted their decay – letting old city centers
and castles of great cultural heritage sink into ruin. Instead, the government
used its scarce resources to build massive precast concrete slab housing
developments, known as Plattenbauten, on the periphery of cities. This
situation presented unified Germany with the task of launching a process
of urban renewal in the cities and towns of the new federal states. The
aim was to rescue urban quarters of great historic architectural value
as a unique cultural asset and at the same time develop an infrastructure
that would conform to current living conditions and revive deserted city
centers.
Links:
General Information
Architecture in Germany (link compilation of 20th-century German architecture)
Information on German architecture from the Goethe Institute
Facts about Germany, Architecture and design
Federation of German Architects (in German
only)
German Architecture-Museum Munich (in German only)
Trends and Architects
Neues Bauen (in German only)
Bauhaus Dessau / Chicago
Ecological Architecture (in German only)
Potsdamer Platz (in German only)
Bundesbaugesellschaft Berlin
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Walter Gropius
Le Corbusier
Bruno Taut
Erich Mendelsohn
Renzo Piano
Richard Rogers
Rafael Moneo
von Gerkan Marg and Partners
Hans Kollhoff
Bothe Richter Teherani
Oswald Mathias Ungers (in German only)
Josef Paul Kleihues (Hamburger Bahnhof)
Stephan Braunfels (Spreebogen, in German only)
Helmut Jahn (Sony Center)
Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank (Federal Chancellery, in German only)
Sir Norman Foster (Reichstag cupola)
Petzinka, Pink and Partner (Stadttor
Düsseldorf, in German only)
Wandel Hoefer Lorch Architekten (Synagogue Dresden)
Iconic Architecture
Peter Behrens
Albert
Speer
Olympic Station Berlin
Stalinallee/Karl-Marx-Allee (in German only)
New National Gallery
Hans Scharoun (Berliner Philharmonie)
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